@ProjectLITcomm is awesome, to put it simply. In short, the goal is to read books by diverse authors or with diverse characters. I find some of the Canterbury Tales absolutely hilarious, but I don’t exactly connect with them. And I love reading. My students, and many others, don’t necessarily share that love and I think one of the reasons may be they haven’t found a text that connects with them. The books that are read by the ProjectLIT Community facilitate that connection. I can’t say enough about how my students have responded to reading those books.
Students approach me before 8am to talk about books! They read on the bus because they don’t have time to read at home. They see parallels between books, map out such parallels, then write a composition about it on their own time, for their own knowledge, entirely unrelated to class. When they realize their friends haven’t read a book, they encourage it to have more people to discuss the book with. They ask if they can come during lunch to discuss what they’ve read because there isn’t enough time in class. Absolutely remarkable. And as such, we set up a chapter: @ProjectLITAASD
Our first official book was Dear Martin, by Nic Stone. Conversations stemming from that book have lead us to read All American Boys, The Hate U Give, Track Series, Amal Unbound, Amina’s Voice, and others I’m surely forgetting. We happen to be reading On the Come Up now and I think Aristotle and Dante will start us off next year, assuming it’s on the list.
With the popularity of these books and the impact they have on students and adults, it’s not a surprise that much ink will be given over to discussing it and much time for presentations. At NCTE, this was no different, with more than one presentation addressing THUG.